ARTH206: The Italian Proto-Renaissance To Mannerism

Unit 1: Early Renaissance: The Proto-Renaissance

In mid- to late-thirteenth century Italy, elements of a new
understanding of representation began to emerge within Christian
art. Though many medieval conventions survived into the fourteenth
century, and the “International Gothic Style,” a decorative and
“two-dimensional” form of representation, was in vogue, some artists
began to incorporate their observations of physical reality and
ancient Greek and Roman art into their work. The term
“Proto-Renaissance” refers to this artistic period spanning the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in Italy. In this unit, we will
first study the social and historical context that served as a
backdrop to these developments as well as the medieval artistic
traditions within which these changes took place. We will then
explore the transformations that took place in the art of the
Italian fourteenth century.

Unit 1 Time Advisory

This unit will take approximately 20 hours to complete.

☐ Subunit 1.1: 2 hours

☐ Subunit 1.2: 5 hours

☐ Subunit 1.3: 2 hours

☐ Subunit 1.4: 3 hours

☐ Subunit 1.5: 4 hours

☐ Subunit 1.6: 4 hours

Unit1 Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this unit, the student will be able
to:

Define the terms “Renaissance” and “Proto-Renaissance.”

Identify the modes of expression of the Proto-Renaissance in the
art of certain regions in Italy.

Identify the Byzantine and Gothic influences in late-thirteenth
and fourteenth century Italy.

Instructions: Please read this short article for some
historical background on Italy.

Terms of Use: This open educational resource is licensed by
Albert Van Helden under a Creative Commons Attribution
License (HTML):
you may share and adapt the work under the conditions that you
correctly attribute it.

Instructions: Please scroll down to track 32 of this series,
titled “The Italian Renaissance” and click on “Get” button to
launch the lecture. Please listen to this lecture and take
notes in order to get a feel for some of the more prominent
characteristics of Italian Renaissance society. Understanding
what the Renaissance is will enable us to subsequently better
situate Renaissance art within a specific social and historical
context. Around the 17-minute mark, Anthony Heideman starts
referencing the city-states of Italy during the Renaissance.
Please view the map of Renaissance Italy, linked in this
subunit, while you listen to that part of his discussion.

Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use
displayed on the webpage above.

Instructions: Simply view the map on this webpage to better
locate the city-states Anthony Heideman evokes in his lecture.
At this time, you do not need to read the article as you will
come back to this reading later in section 2.1.4 of this
course.

Terms of Use: This open educational resource is licensed under
a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike
license
(HTML): you may share and adapt the work under the conditions
that you correctly attribute it, that you do not use it for
commercial purposes, and, that in the case you adapt and
distribute it, you do so under a similar license.

Instructions: Please read these two passages in order to get a
sense for the historical context surrounding the
Proto-Renaissance in Italy. While you should focus most on the
passages treating Italy, it is recommended that you read the
pages in their entirety to get a sense for parallel historical
developments throughout Europe.

Terms of Use: This open educational resource is licensed by
Jack E. Maxfield under a Creative Commons Attribution
License (HTML):
you may share and adapt the work under the condition that you
correctly attribute it.

1.2.2 City-States and Courts

Reading: University of Calgary: The Applied History Research
Group’s “The End of Europe’s Middle Ages: Italy’s City-States”

Instructions: Please read this article to get a sense for the
political organization of Italy in the early stages of the
Renaissance. Understanding the political make-up of Italy will
subsequently help you get a better grasp on the effects of the
papacy as well as competition between courts and city-states on
art production during the Renaissance in Italy.

Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use
displayed on the webpage above.

1.2.3 The Church, Francis of Assisi, and the Mendicant Orders

Reading: University of Calgary: The Applied History Research
Group’s “The End of Europe’s Middle Ages: The Church”

Instructions: Please read this article to get a sense for what
the mendicant orders were in the Middle Ages. Please also click
on the thumbnail images located above the text to view the
artworks and their captions.

Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use
displayed on the webpage above.

Web Media: Virginia Tech: David Burr's Translation of "The
Rule of the Franciscan Order" and Ellesmere Chaucer's and Gioto
di Bondone's illustrations of Saint Francis.

Instructions: Please view the images of Giotto’s and Chaucer's
depiction of the Life of Saint Francis of Assisi to get a sense
for the importance of the orders as they related to society and
the arts. Then read “The Rule of the Franciscan Order” to
understand the raison d’être of the order.

Terms of Use: David Burr's translation of "The Rules of the
Franciscan Order" is used under academic and noncommercial
permission. The images above are in the public domain.

Reading: Virginia Tech: David Burr’s Translation of Thomas of
Celano’s “First and Second Lives of Saint Francis”

Instructions: Please read this work on Saint Francis’ early
life, written in its original version by a thirteenth-century
Franciscan friar. Look at the frescoes of the “Saint Francis
Cycle in the Upper Church of Assisi,” available through the web
media link in this subunit, to get a better feel for the way in
which important figures of the mendicant orders were portrayed
in art during the era of the Proto-Renaissance.

Terms of Use: David Burr's translation of "First and Second
Lives of Saint Francis" is used under academic and noncommercial
permission.

Web Media: Wikimedia Commons: “Saint Francis Cycle in the
Upper Church of San Francesco at Assisi”

Instructions: Please view this cycle of frescoes in conjunction
with the reading of the “First and Second Lives of Saint
Francis” by Thomas of Celano. This cycle of frescoes, depicting
the life of Saint Francis of Assisi, was painted by Giotto, an
important Proto-Renaissance painter.

Terms of Use: The text on the webpage above is available under
a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike
License (HTML):
you may share and adapt the work under the conditions that you
correctly attribute it, and, in the case that you adapt and
distribute it, you do so under a similar license. You can find
the original Wikipedia version of this article
here (HTML).

1.2.4 Humanism

Reading: Robert Baldwin’s Social History of Art: “Humanism and
the Early Italian Renaissance”

Instructions: Please go to the webpage linked above. Please
read the article “Baldwin, Renaissance Humanism, an Overview.”
Take careful notes on the meaning, context of emergence, and
modes of expression of Humanism in the Early Renaissance.

Terms of Use: The resource above is hosted with the kind
permission of Robert Baldwin. You can view his original document
on his site
here.

1.3 Art in the Proto-Renaissance: Overview

Reading: The University of Melbourne: The Bernard Smith Art
History Lectures: “Giotto and Trencento Painting”

Instructions: Please click on the “Download Giotto and
Trencento Painting lecture” hyperlink to open the PDF file.
Proceed to read this lecture. While you read it, please go to
web media also linked in this subunit to view the artworks
discussed. The Bernard Smith Art History Lectures were given at
an undergraduate level at the University of Melbourne by
Professor Bernard Smith between 1956 and 1966.

Terms of Use: Please respect the terms of use and copyright of
the webpage above.

Instructions: Read the article entitled “Overview.” Then, click
on “Start Tour” and “Continue Tour” (at the bottom of each
webpage) to view the images and read the corresponding text.
Alternatively, to access this material you may click on the
individual thumbnails for each image.

Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use
displayed on the webpage above.

Instructions: Please read this article to get a feel for the
way Byzantine and medieval artistic traditions served as the
backdrop for the beginning of the development of Renaissance
art, at first represented by artists such as Giotto di Bondone.
Please also click on the thumbnail images located above the text
and view the artworks and their captions.

Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use
displayed on the webpage above.

1.4.3 The “International Gothic Style”

Reading: Robert Baldwin’s Social History of Art: “Gentile da
Fabriano’s ‘Adoration of the Magi’”

Instructions: Please go to the webpage linked above. Please
read the article “Baldwin, Gentile da Fabriano’s ‘Adoration of
the Magi.’” The article discusses an artwork by Fabriano made in
the International Gothic Style. It explores its form and content
within the broad historical and social context the artwork was
made in. Please view the artwork, “The Adoration of the Magi,”
by going to the link below.

Terms of Use: The resource above is hosted with the kind
permission of Robert Baldwin. You can view his original document
on his site
here.

Instructions: Please read this short article for some
background on Florence and Tuscany.

Terms of Use: This open educational resource is licensed by
Albert Van Helden under a Creative Commons Attribution
License (HTML):
you may share and adapt the work under the condition that you
correctly attribute it.

Instructions: Please watch this video in its entirety
(approximately 6 minutes). In this video, speakers Dr. David
Drogin and Dr. Beth Harris discuss a relief sculpture by Andrea
Pisano. Take notes on the naturalistic and classicizing elements
of the artwork as well as its subject-matter. Also take notes on
discussion of the role of the artist in Pisano’s time.

Instructions: Please view the image up close and take notes on
its formal elements. Read the Louvre Museum text and consider
the following questions. Which formal elements of art might have
been inherited from the Byzantine artistic tradition? Which
formal elements break with the Byzantine artistic tradition?

Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use of
the image and the text displayed on the above webpage.

Instructions: Watch this video (11 minutes). In this video,
speakers Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker compare and
contrast a painting by Cimabue with a painting by Giotto. Take
notes on the stylistic differences between the two artworks and
how they relate to the general evolution of art in the period of
the Proto-Renaissance. What shifts in the use of pictorial
conventions does Giotto’s painting illustrate?

Instructions: Please watch this video, with speakers Dr. Beth
Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker, in its entirety (approximately 7
minutes). Also, read the accompanying article on one of Giotto’s
masterpieces, The Lamentation. Take notes on the
characteristics of the painting that differentiate it from the
medieval tradition and on the elements of Giotto’s humanism
manifest in this representation.

The Saylor Foundation does not yet have materials for this
portion of the course. If you are interested in contributing
your content to fill this gap or aware of a resource that could
be used here, please submit it here.

Instructions: Read the article entitled “Overview.” Then, click
on “Start Tour” and “Continue Tour” (at the bottom of each
webpage) to view the images and read the corresponding text.
Alternatively, to access this material you may click on the
individual thumbnails for each image.

Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use
displayed on the webpage above.

Instructions: Please read the article for an introduction to
the art of Siena that focuses on fourteenth century painting.
Please also click on the thumbnail images located above the text
and view the artworks and their captions.

Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use
displayed on the webpage above.

Instructions: Please watch this video, with speakers Dr. David
Drogin and Dr. Beth Harris, in its entirety (about 5 minutes).
Also, read the accompanying article to get a sense for the
Sienese style of art during the Proto-Renaissance. Take notes on
the characteristics of the style used in Siena to represent the
sacred and other-worldly as well as the style used to represent
more secular topics. Take visual elements such as line and space
into consideration when you take notes.

Instructions: Watch this video (about 5 minutes) in its
entirety, and read the accompanying article. In this video,
speakers Dr. David Dorgin and Dr. Beth Harris discuss a painting
by Duccio. Take notes on the characteristics of the painting
that make it a transitional piece between Medieval and
Renaissance art, its “other-worldly” characteristics and its
realistic characteristics. Also, pay attention to discussion of
the piece’s function.

Instructions: Please scroll down to track 2 of this series,
entitled “Duccio di Buoninsegna’s Madonna and Child.” Proceed
to watch this video while taking notes on the painting’s
important characteristics.

Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use
displayed on the webpage above.

Instructions: Please watch this video in its entirety
(approximately 14 minutes). In this video, Dr. David Drogin and
Dr. Beth Harris discuss reliefs by the Pisanos. Make sure to
take careful notes on the artworks’ stylistic elements as well
as their iconographies.